Those Hymns ended, the Bed was carried out of the City into the Campus Martius, in the middle of which Place was erected a kind of square Pavilion; the Inside thereof was full of combustible Matter, and the Outside hung with Cloth of Gold, and adorned with Figures of Ivory, and various Paintings.
Over this Edifice were several others, like the first in Form and Decoration, but less; always diminishing, and growing slenderer towards the Top, and a great many aromatick Perfumes, and odoriferous Fruits and Herbs were thrown all around: After which, the Knights made a Procession in solemn Measures about the Pile; several Chariots ran round it, those who conducted them being clad in purple Robes, and bearing the Images of the greatest Roman Emperors and Generals.
This Ceremony ended, the new Emperor came to the Catafalco or Pile with a Torch in his hand, and at the same time Fire was put to it on all sides by the Company, the Spices and all Combustibles kindling all at once. While this was doing, they let fly from the Top of the Building an Eagle, which mounting into the Air with a Firebrand, carried the Soul of the dead Emperor along with it into Heaven, as the Romans believ’d; and thenceforward he was ranked among the Gods. ’Tis for this Reason that the Medals wherein the Apotheoses are represented, have usually an Altar with Fire upon it, or however an Eagle taking its Flight into the Air, and sometimes two Eagles[[409]].
[409]. Herodian, who writ his History in 8 Books, from whom we have the Ceremonies of the Apotheosis of the Roman Emperors, lib. 4.
A certain Emperor being asked, what he had done to merit an Apotheosis? He answered, He had always studied to resemble the Gods. And being asked again, In what did he endeavour to be like them? He answered, In having as few Wants as possible of my own, and doing good in the most extensive Way to others.
There is no Place so remote in the World, but has been polluted with this monstrous Idolatry, of worshipping Serpents. The northern Historians tell us, the People of Lithuania in Poland worship’d Serpents; and ’tis not long ago, since that gross Idolatry was abolish’d, of which Sigismund Baron of Herberstein, gives us this memorable Story, viz.
——Returning, says he, from Massovia near Wilna, my Host acquainted me, he had bought a Hive of Bees, from one of these Serpent-Worshippers, whom with much ado he had persuaded to kill the Serpent, and worship the true God: Within a while after coming that Way, he found the poor Fellow miserably tortured and deformed, his Face wrinkl’d and turn’d awry; and demanding the Cause of it, he answer’d, viz.
THAT this Judgment was inflicted upon him for killing his God, and that he was like to endure heavier Torments if he did not return to his former Worship. Which brings to my Mind a Passage in one of the Fathers, relating to the Carthaginians, who having been compelled by Agathocles King of Sicily to leave off those horrid Sacrifices of human Victims to Saturn, forbore them a long time: But a great Calamity being brought upon them for disusing those human Sacrifices; and to atone for their Neglect, they sacrificed at once two hundred Children of the noblest Families in Carthage[[410]].
[410]. Cum victi essent ab Agathocle rege Siculorum, iratum sibi Deum putavisse, itaque ut diligentius piaculum solverent ducentos nobilium filios immolasse. Lactantius. Lib. 1. Sect. 21. p. 67. Lugd. Batav.
But to return to the Baron of the North, who adds, That in his Time, the People in Samogitia, East of the Baltick Sea, did still pay divine Honours to a Serpent as a Deity.... Some of those that inhabit the Deserts, adore a four-footed Serpent, under the Name of Givosit. Few Families there, are without Serpents, for their Domestick Gods, to whom they give more than ordinary Veneration, tho’ at the same time they profess the Christian Faith[[411]], which Jagello their Prince received Anno Domini 1386. ibid.